China’s rise as a tech powerhouse has dovetailed with Silicon Valley’s growing, and often vividly expressed, distrust toward democracy itself. Always steeped in libertarian pique—not long ago, technologists expressed hope for floating ad-hoc nation-states or, as Larry Page put it, referencing Burning Man, “some safe places where we can try out some new things”— Silicon Valley now toys with Californian secessionism and Singapore-style authoritarian technocracy. That new horizon, that place of raucous experimentation with a frontier-like possibility at striking it rich, they believe, is in China.
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A First? Digital Avatar Stars In Ballet
Miami-based production company Magical Reality Group believes is the first time the live technology has been applied to a dance performance. This technology is used a lot in film and video games but not live dance.
A Crisis Of “Whom”
A few copy editors have proposed a radical solution to the “who/whom” problem: kill off the “whom.” And yet there are those who believe in “whom” and wish to see it used correctly.
Claim: Arts Degrees Promise “Unrealistic” Job Prospects
“Arts and media does stand out as the area where there is greatest mismatch between the numbers of students taking the courses and the employment prospects at the end. There is a point up to which courses that engage learners have value, but ultimately there have to be viable prospects at the end.”
Report: 85 Percent Of Arts Internships Are Unpaid
According to the research, 86% of internships in the arts, which includes theatre and music, are unpaid. Its definition of unpaid includes expenses-only placements, and those that offered rates below the minimum wage. The research highlights how the arts had 32% fewer working-class interns than in the graduate population as a whole.
At This Rate, How Long Until Pisa’s Leaning Tower Will Be Straight?
The 12th-century tower reopened to the public in 2001 after being closed for more than a decade to let workers reduce its slant. By using hundreds of tons of lead counterweights at the base and extracting soil from under the foundations, engineers initially shaved 17 inches off the lean.
Bob Dylan At 77
The musician turned 77 this year, a similar age to many of the artists who recently have announced retirement such as Neil Diamond, Joan Baez, Elton John, Ozzy Osbourne, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Paul Simon. Even though Dylan hasn’t so much as hinted at ending his career, it’s difficult not to take his line as some sort of protest when he sings‚ “I ain’t dead yet.”
The Serious Writing Establishment Embraces TV
In a world in which some of our more successful or esteemed novelists — Margaret Atwood, Gillian Flynn, George R.R. Martin, Salman Rushdie, Kevin Kwan, Neil Gaiman, Tom Perrotta, Noah Hawley, A.M. Homes, Jonathan Ames, Megan Abbott and David Benioff, to name only a few — have written or are writing for the small screen, literary academia has less reason than ever to be sheepish about preparing its charges for the solaces of a healthy paycheck.
Literature Has Often Inspired Movies. But Poetry?
“It’s not often that a poet gets to see their words on a movie theater screen. So much of being a poet is very isolating, sitting in your pajamas over a notebook for 14 hours on end, so it’s cool to get to do something with poetry that’s very collaborative.”
Reassurances The Art Market Is Still Expanding?
About last week’s auction sales: For these marquee New York sales, $2 billion seems to have become the figure that reassures a wider world that top end of the art market is humming, if not actually booming. Last week, that feel-good figure was achieved with the help of material not normally seen in Impressionist, modern and contemporary sales. Prices were also propped up, wherever possible, with hundreds of millions of dollars in financial guarantees.